Rockefeller Foundation. International Health Division

Mason V. Hargett contributed greatly to the field of tropical medicine with his work on the yellow fever vaccine, first with the Rockefeller Foundation in Brazil and then at the USPHS Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Montana. Hargett's research facilitated the introduction of a yellow fever vaccine produced without human serum.

Taylor was a microbiologist, public health official and Director of the Rockefeller Foundation International Health Division. His specialty was arboviruses. In 1951 at the age of 65 he helped establish a program at the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU-3) in Egypt to study mosquito- and tick-borne viruses and their transmission cycles. Collaborating closely with Telford Work and others, their work helped eradicate yellow fever and identified the West Nile virus.